Book and gift retailers beat slowdown

KOLKATA: At a time when the Rs 27,000-crore organised retail sector in India is facing its worst crisis, the book-and-gift retailing segment seems to be the least affected. Leading book retail chains such as Landmark, Crossword and RPG Retail���s Books & Beyond suffered only a marginal impact on sales and are experiencing a rapid revival in offtake.

The pure-play organised book retailing in India is pegged at over Rs 300 crore. It grew around 25% before the slowdown.

���Growth will be affected this year, but the hit will be marginal. The industry���s sales growth has fallen by a meagre 15-20%, which is far lesser than apparel, groceries and lifestyle retail. Book retailing is emerging as a recession-proof segment in India,��� Landmark chief operating officer Himanshu Chakrawarti told ET.

Tata group���s book-and-gift retail venture Landmark operates 25 stores across India and is witnessing a sales growth of 18-20%. Interestingly, most of these book stores have a strong merchandise mix of music, movies, toys and gifts.

Leading retail consultancy Technopak Advisors chairman Arvind K Singhal expects books-and-gifts retail to maintain its growth momentum. ���Consumers prefer to read a lot during recession, be it self-help books, education, cookery and travel. The number of social occasions are also going up in India, triggering gift sales,��� Mr Singhal pointed out.